(Newser)
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Vermont is the only state with a law allowing it to have a say over whether a nuclear plant's license should be renewed, but a federal judge has slapped down Vermont's attempt to withhold such a renewal. The judge ruled that Vermont Yankee, the state's only nuclear plant, can continue to operate after its original 40-year license expires in March, the New York Times reports. The judge decided that Vermont was trying to regulate nuclear safety, something only federal regulators—who recently granted the plant a license to operate for another 20 years—are allowed to do.

State lawmakers said that wasn't so, but the judge maintained that the record clearly showed that legislators were trying to close the plant because of "radiological safety concerns." The Times notes that before voting in 2010 not to grant the renewal, public opinion of the plant was battered by way of a 2007 collapse of a cooling tower and the 2009 revelation that underground pipes were leaking radioactive material. "I continue to believe that it is in Vermont’s best interest to retire the plant," says Gov. Peter Shumlin, who led the fight to close the plant when he was leader of the state Senate. The state's attorney general is reviewing his options for an appeal, reports the Burlington Free Press.

Here's the actual fucking deal, as someone who lives in Brattleboro, and personally knows one of the radiation protection guys in the building. Yankee is one of the top five safest in the nation. No, I cant hot-link you a list, because it doesn't exist publicly. Why? Because while there is a TOP five, there's also a bottom five. The inevitable, logical existence of that group would cause complete apoplexy in the residents near those plants. Even more important : Yankee is the only thing keeping Vermont alive. Go do a google for the list of nuclear power plants on the planet. Wikipedia has it. I'll wait. You see those "Decommissioned" ones? Now go look up those town's economic histories. Go ahead, I swear, you can do actual research yourself for a minute more. Brattleboro depends wholly and completely on Yankee's continued existence, and its gobsmackingly cheap energy, despite having anti-Entergy graffiti up all over the place. Its also the only thing keeping all those sweet, sweet manufactoring jobs chugging away in our region up and running at a profitable pace. Oh, and that "leak" you keep hearing about? The radiological content equivalent to a wristwatch. It was actually well below the mandated reporting threshold. Which is massively tighter than any other nation's mandated limits, to boot.

myflap.blow

Jan 20, 2012 9:47 PM CST

so when it blows up who do we blame? so we can charge them for the big carnival tent.

SC23

Jan 20, 2012 11:50 AM CST

The real question is what will happen when a state finally has enough of being told what to do that is obviously an over-stepping of federal power and simply goes ahead and says screw you feds.. is that when the Army comes in?